Alejandro Muszak, founder and CEO of the fintech Wenance, was arrested in Vicente López by the Buenos Aires police and was investigated by prosecutor Alejandro Guevara for the crimes of fraud and illicit association.
This was reported to THE NATION qualified judicial sources. This is a file that began last January, in which an alleged scam of approximately 1,500,000 dollars and 5,000,000 pesos is investigated..
When questioned by prosecutor Guevara, he denied the accusations against him and stated that he is not a fraudster. He defined himself as a businessman who had a bad business turnwhich has a preventive bankruptcy and never wanted to avoid paying its obligations, but it is financially impossible, judicial sources reported.
Wenance it a financial company that is dedicated to providing loans or financing consumption (appliances and motorcycles) to underbanked segments of the population, with high credit risk, to whom it charges interest rates higher than those of the banks. To finance itself, it obtained funds from private trusts, with the promise of high returns to those who invested in these instruments.
As far as he could know THE NATION From judicial sources, prosecutor Guevara’s investigation has 27 victims and 24 documented cases of scams.
“After the stage of collecting evidence and the analysis of the documentation done by prosecutor Guevara and his work team, the representative of the Public Ministry requested the arrest of Muszak and the San Isidro Guarantees Judge Alejandra Rodríguez Mentasti granted the extent. The maneuver investigated is a classic pyramid scam“, reported judicial sources.
Muszak was arrested yesterday by detectives from the Vicente López Departmental Investigation Subdelegation (SubDDI) of the Buenos Aires police on Avenida del Libertador and Las Heras, in that district in the north of the suburbs.
In the operation, police detectives seized an Apple computer, an iPhone, 155,000 pesos, 900 dollars and a Mercedes Benz model C63S.according to sources from the Buenos Aires Ministry of Security.
Today, in addition, two other suspects were detained by Buenos Aires police personnel: Rodolfo Cleto Garcia, in Pilar, who was robbed of a Toyota Hilux van, and Juan Silvero, in La Matanza.
“Investigative tasks continue to arrest other defendants with arrest warrants issued by Justice”police sources reported.
The file in charge of prosecutor Guevara is not the only one in which the alleged scams through Wenance are investigated. In the city of Buenos Aires he is processing another case in the Criminal and Correctional Court No. 43 –subrogated by Judge Paula González–, in which the prosecutor Mónica Cuñarrowhere the victims would amount to 439. “The process is progressing,” reported sources in the case.
Judicial sources did not rule out THE NATION that the file being processed in the Judicial Department of San Isidro be attached to the case being investigated by Judge González and Prosecutor Cuñarro. “There is an ‘inhibition’ incident so that everything related to the alleged Wenance scams would be sent to Court No. 43,” they stated.
There is also another judicial case in Tierra del Fuego, filed in the Investigative Court No. 3 of Ushuaia, led by Federico Vidal, and involves around 3,000 investors in Winance who have not collected their debts since last month.
In August of last year, after a series of raids ordered by Justice and after complaints from investors, Muszak acknowledged in an interview with THE NATION that there were debts and that the lack of payment was a consequence of the “increase in delinquencies” in its client portfolio.
“We compete with banks, which have cheaper funding. It is a business with much smaller margins due to the competition that exists. Furthermore, it is a market that has suffered an increase in delinquencies for two years,” Muszak defended himself on that occasion.
In the interview he added: “The reason for the situation that Wenance is experiencing today is the result of the increase in delinquencies in the portfolio it has today. We provide loans and finance the purchase of appliances and motorcycles. In motorcycles, in the market, the default was 11% and now it is 19%, and in household appliances it went from 14% to 23%.”
In July of last year, the firm defaulted on $500 million in interest payments to the three trusts it managed. On that occasion they announced to their investors a payment plan of 12 installments with interestwhile continuing with their proposal for an investment scheme to withdraw capital in one year anchored to the price of the MEP dollar, with an annual interest rate of 8%.
“Dear investor, we are writing to inform you that the company will honor all of its invested capital commitments. The company prepared a payment proposal that contemplates its investment and the viability of the business. Based on this, we have made available the following telephone number +549 (11) 7165-4000 so that you can contact us from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., leaving your name and surname, and your advisor will contact you in the coming days,” was the message the company sent, with the signature of its CEO, Muszak.
Although Wenance had two public trusts and a Settlement and Clearing Agent (ALYC) that are regulated by the National Securities Commission (CNV), the private trusts that had the defaults are not regulated. That is, they are not supervised by the agency.
Wenance’s private trusts, in theory, funded the loans focused on the unbanked population granted by the company; The problem of non-payment of interest would have originated from an increase in the delinquency of the portfolio of those loans intended for the purchase of motorcycles and household appliances.
Born as a traditional credit firm, Wenance migrated in 2013 into the universe fintech with the same customer focus: the unbanked population. The company that Muszak founded and directs is dedicated to providing loans to users who, for the most part, do not have access to traditional institutions. In addition to operating in the country, it is present in Uruguay, Mexico and Spain, from where it sought to expand to Europe.
In this plan, in May 2021 it signed a financing agreement for 50 million euros with a North American capital fund, for a period of seven years, to fund its activity. “The agreement is focused on the operation in Spain. It’s debt, no equity [participación accionaria en la sociedad]and it will be used to provide loans,” Muszak explained at that time.
According to its data, the firm today has a team of more than 400 people, 250,000 clients, a portfolio of US$120 million and has granted more than 850,000 loans.
The brands of the loans are Welp and Mango. Mango is a shorter digital credit to be able to use it quickly and for a smaller amount and Welp is a product related to the financing of motorcycles, cars and appliances. It is more oriented towards consumer banking.